1988 in video games
overview of video gaming-related events during the year of 1988
1988 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Dragon Quest III, Super Contra, Mega Man 2, Double Dragon II: The Revenge, and Super Mario Bros. 3, along with new titles such as Assault, Altered Beast, Capcom Bowling, Ninja Gaiden, RoboCop, Winning Run and Chase H.Q.
The year's highest-grossing arcade video games were After Burner and After Burner II in Japan, Double Dragon in the United States, Operation Wolf in the United Kingdom, and RoboCop in Hong Kong. The year's best‑selling home system was the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) for the fifth year in a row, while the year's best-selling home video games were Dragon Quest III in Japan and Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt in the United States.
Events
Out Run wins Game of the Year at the 5th Golden Joystick Awards, for the year 1987.
June – Nintendo releases the last issue (#7) of Nintendo Fun Club News.
July – Nintendo releases the first issue of Nintendo Power magazine.
December - Namco releases their first 3D polygon video game, Winning Run, running on the Namco System 21 arcade board.
Financial performance
Highest-grossing arcade games
Japan
In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1988, according to the annual Gamest and Game Machine charts.
Hong Kong and United States
In Hong Kong and the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1988.
United Kingdom
Operation Wolf was the top-earning arcade game of 1988 in the United Kingdom.
“1988 in video games” enters the record as overview of video gaming-related events during the year of 1988. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what video, games and overview can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“1988 in video games” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, video, games and overview provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2718392. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1988 and 1987.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “1988 in video games”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 1988 in video games primary sources, 1988 in video games archive and video research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1988 in video games”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “1988 in video games” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.